Early 1980: Osama bin Laden, with Saudi backing, Supports Afghan rebels Osama bin Laden begins providing financial, organizational, and engineering aid for the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, with the advice and support of the Saudi royal family. Some, including Richard Clarke, counterterrorism tsar during the Clinton and George W Bush administrations, believe he was handpicked for the job by Prince Turki al-Faisal, head of Saudi Arabias secret service. The Pakistani ISI want a Saudi prince as a public demonstration of the commitment of the Saudi royal family and as a way to ensure royal funds for the anti- Soviet forces. The agency fails to get royalty, but bin Laden, with his familys influential ties, is good enough for the ISI. (Clarke will argue later that the Saudis and other Muslim governments used the Afghan war in an attempt to get rid of their own misfits and troublemakers.) This multinational force later coalesces into al-Qaeda.m
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:41:58 +0000
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